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In Paris, 2015, the Council of Parties reached international agreement that urgent action is needed to prevent climate change. Then February 2016 broke all the records for breaking global warming records. More needs to be done and I can do some of it myself, starting at home.

New Commitment for 2016: Make my home carbon-neutral.

I’ll aim for my home-life to be healthy, comfortable and affordable, but not to contribute to global warming. I’ll also record the details in this blog, and encourage other households to join in.

The plan is to systematically:

measure my carbon footprint,

look for ways to reduce emissions,

off-set whatever remains,

continue assessing and reporting so I can continue the journey, and maybe even become carbon negative.

So what does it mean to be carbon neutral?

We humans are emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere faster than they can be absorbed back into the earth. As a result, more heat is trapped within the atmosphere than previously, and global temperatures are rising. This is happening even though some people don’t understand, or disagree with the science.

(If you are one of those climate change denialists, there’s no point me arguing with you, and you won’t be interested in this blog, so kindly head off and put your head in the sand somewhere else).

People who measure and reduce the greenhouse effect have worked out an accounting system to keep track of emissions. The basic idea is to get all of the emissions in the same units. Lots of different gases contribute to global warming. Each gas has a different impact, or global warming potential. A tonne of methane (CH4) for instance, causes about 25 times as much global warming as a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2). And a tonne of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) has about 23,900 times as great an impact. Because CO2 is both the most common greenhouse gas, and also has the smallest impact per unit, we simplify things, by using CO2 as the reference point. All we have to do is to convert all emissions to their carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), and we can sum the totals together.

Being carbon neutral means minimising your emissions, then balancing any that remain with an equal amount sequestered or off-set. Basically, you absorb as much as you emit.

In the next few blogs, I’m going to measure the emissions my household has from:

Each year the ANU Sustainability Learning Community hosts a Great Green Debate but this year was different. Recognising that there is not debate that climate change is happening, the group instead organised a forum on solutions, bringing together technology and policy experts to discuss sustainable solutions to climate change and energy demands. And what a discussion it was.

The draw-card speaker was Adam Bandt MP, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Federal Member for Melbourne and true inspiration. Adam reflected on a recent trip to Germany and the perplexing differences between Australian and German opinions on wind farms. Wind energy of course is one of the most promising green energy sources and by 2013, new power stations running on wind were about 2/3 the price of new coal – even without the carbon tax.

After the trip to Germany, Adam says he spends most of his time wondering how we can increase community ownership of Australia’s renewable energy infrastructure. This is timely because about 40% of Australia’s coal-fired power stations are past their end-life and need to be replaced.

A German presenter gets in the way of the graph that Adam Bandt MP intended to photograph. Adam is the small, dark pointer at the front of the slide.

Windlab is well on the way to providing a solution to Adam’s dilemma. Garth Heron spoke about the Coonooer Bridge wind farm in Victoria, which is the first renewable energy project in the country with an ownership structure that includes the local farming community together with the developer. Garth also showed off Windlab’s wind prospecting technology and energy models showing the feasibility of electricity co-generation from solar and wind. In some places, the wind and sun can reliably generate baseload energy throughout most of every day, with more energy produced than is needed for many hours.

The bright future for renewable energy harvest went pocket-sized in Professor Hoe Tan’s presentation on nanotechnology solutions. He’s harvesting solar energy using photonic devices about the size of atoms and integrating them into bigger applications, hugely increasing the amount of electricity that can be generated.

With enough renewable energy capacity in the bag, the climate solution discussion shifts to battery technology. Professor Christine Charles is developing hydrogen fuel cells that could soon install rocket power into clean, green cars, as well as stationery settings.

Many commercial property developers are actively progressing the green energy agenda. James Bichard, the Development Manager at the Molonglo Group which designed the Nishi Building in New Acton explained how energy efficiency is fundamental to the design of their new, iconic cinema/office/apartment block which won the International Project of the Year at the 2015 Building Awards in London . Green energy doesn’t have to be elite either, with Nishi holding a proportion of it’s apartments at an affordable entry level for new home-owners.

Of course all of this needs financial support and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has the solution. This profitable government body secures financing solutions for the clean energy sector. The CEFC partners with commercial financiers and focuses on projects and technologies at the later stages of development which have a positive expected rate of return and have the capacity to service and repay capital. The CEFC’s 2013-14 Annual Report revealed a total project value of $3.2b, and a positive return of $2.40 profit for every dollar it invests.

Compact or large-scale combined solar and wind power generation, efficient battery storage, green buildings and the CEFC are quite possibly the best way to replace end-of-life power stations with sustainable solutions. These are all proven, cost-effective and available now. In light of these options it seems inexcusable for Australia’s Coalition government to threaten Australia’s Renewable Energy Target and its associated research, development and financial initiatives as they are this week in Australia.

Thanks Alexander Ferguson, Karen Hussey and the Sustainability Learning Community for these amazing stories to support our outrage.

I’m tired. I’m really deeply tired most of the time, but especially after the day’s third bout of washing up.

I think it’s because I am a working mother, living in a world that hasn’t caught up with the last four decades of feminism. Within my household I juggle the vast bulk of the housework, with having a career, paying the mortgage, maintaining a marriage and trying to keep up appearances.

Lets unpack that sink full of housework. I buy the food, plan the meals, cook, serve, clean and put away. I find the dirty clothes that are scattered thinly around the house, under the couch and throughout the yard, then wash, fold and put them away. Other people pat the pets, but its me who buys their food, pays the vet bills, cleans their houses, feeds and waters them. I sweep and sanitise the loo and tidy the yard. No wonder some of these things only get done every so often.

My household is fairly typical. The latest Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey shows that the average Australian woman spends about 15 hours a week on housework, while men spend about 6. Apparently in the average home, total work hours are roughly equal between the genders because men spend more time in paid work, but that doesn’t apply in my house, because I spend the most time in paid work too.

I’m calling it. Housework is still a feminist issue. So is the physical and mental health of mothers saddled with twice the burden of past generations. These days we do the dad’s traditional role of breadwinner plus the mum’s old duties at the sink. I agree with Annabel. Women need wives. And it seems to me that housework imbalances could be one of the reasons that women are more likely than men to have mental health disorders like depression and anxiety.

Mothers’ Day looms towards us. For me, this represents a commercial con correlated with increased household duties. But this year I’m skimping on the housework and updating society instead.

I’ve used the simple spreadsheet attached to the purple button below to audit my current share of the housework. It turns out that I do 86%. So I commit to reducing that contribution by 11%. By this time next year I aim to be doing only 75%. Maybe this seems like a small change, but here I am, starting in an entrenched and unfair reality.

If I succeed, Mothers’ Day 2016 will really be something to celebrate.

If you think things are not fair in your household then take the Mothers Day Challenge with me. Fill in the form here, and make a commitment to change. Then you can save, print, and also ask others in your household to fill one out for themselves. (You’ll need to be at a computer running Excel).